Tourists fined $2K for taking selfies with dingoes as wild dog attacks rise in Australia – National
Two women in the Australian state of Queensland have been fined hefty for taking selfies next to several dingoes, according to local authorities.
Officials with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) said Friday that two unnamed tourists had been charged A$2,300 (more than C$2,045) for the conduct of “the”.very dangerous Determined to approach Dingo.”
In recent months, native wild dogs have violently attacked many people. One dingo performed several violent attacks, including biting a 7-year-old boy. euthanized in june.
The two women were visiting Kgalli Island (formerly Fraser Island) in Queensland when they encountered a dingo, locally known as Wongari. They uploaded selfies and videos with Dingo to social media.
Images provided by the Queensland Department of Environmental Science show one of the women, apparently a 29-year-old from New South Wales, lying on the grass next to three sleeping dingo cubs.
“We were lucky that the puppy’s mother wasn’t around,” said Mike DeBerry, the department’s compliance officer. “Wongari are known to protect their herds and puppies, and it’s unbelievable that a human would endanger their well-being like this.”
Another tourist, a 25-year-old from Queensland, uploaded a video showing himself near a growling dingo.
Debery warned that the actions in the video were “not silly.”
“Wongari is a wild animal and needs to be treated as a wild animal. The women were lucky the situation didn’t escalate,” he said.
The ministry said contact with Dingo was “irresponsible” and unacceptable.
Earlier this week, a 23-year-old woman hospitalization A dingo bit him while jogging in Kugari, causing serious injuries to his limbs, the Queensland Department of Environmental Sciences said. The woman was rescued by a nearby tourist who witnessed the attack, but she said she was bitten 30 times. Officials said the dingo likely had “lost its innate wariness of humans.”
the dingo is visually similar Up to domestic dogs, usually 120 centimeters long and 60 centimeters tall. They often hunt rabbits and small rodents singly or in groups of up to 12.
The Queensland Department of Environmental Science strongly discourages approaching dingoes.Tourists should never feed You should never run away from an approaching dingo for fear of causing a negative interaction.
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